Redoing a homicide case

Former Columbia police Officer Steven Rios appeared yesterday in Boone County Circuit Court, as one of his lawyers continued to try to add another lawyer to the defense team.

Rios, 31, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the 2004 slaying of University of Missouri student Jesse Valencia. He is scheduled for retrial on those charges in August.

Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler told Moberly attorney Gillis Leonard that he had not yet approved Stone Grissom of Baton Rouge, La., as another lawyer for Rios.

"I have no understanding that he has complied in any fashion" with a Missouri Supreme Court rule permitting out-of-state attorneys to represent someone in a Missouri court, Oxenhandler told Leonard.

Grissom, a former actor who has appeared on Court TV, is licensed to practice law in Washington state, Leonard said after the hearing, and could work on the Rios case under a 1972 Missouri Supreme Court rule that allows any lawyer in "good standing" with a state bar association to pay a $100 fee and appear in a criminal case as a "visiting attorney."

Leonard said after the hearing that he believes Grissom has complied with the requirements but notification had not reached Oxenhandler.

Leonard said he believed Grissom would be in the courtroom on July 3, when pretrial motions are scheduled for argument in front of Oxenhandler.

The retrial is scheduled to begin Aug. 18 with a jury from Clay County.

Rios was convicted in May 2005 on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action after a weeklong trial. He was sentenced to serve life in prison without parole. A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District last year overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial after ruling that hearsay statements in the trial were prejudicial.

Valencia's body was found June 5, 2004, outside his East Campus apartment. Rios, who was married at the time, admitted having a romantic relationship with Valencia but denied killing him.

Leonard last week filed seven motions, including a motion to exclude hearsay statements of the victim as testified in court by a friend, Joan Sheridan. The motion asks Oxenhandler to block any testimony by Sheridan about comments she heard Valencia make, including that Valencia intended to ask Rios whether he was married and that Valencia intended to disclose their homosexual relationship to the police department if Rios refused to dispose of a city summons that earlier had been issued to Valencia.

The defense also has asked the court to suppress hair evidence from Valencia's body that linked Rios to the victim, crime-scene and autopsy photographs of Valencia's body and a knife that prosecutors said was similar to one Rios was known to have. The defense also is asking that the jury be allowed to visit where Valencia's body was found.

The hair evidence was seized during the autopsy, according to the defense motion. Since it was seized and placed into evidence, "it has been tainted by unlawful tampering," the defense motion alleges.

The defense contends that a Spyderco knife similar to one linked to Rios is irrelevant to the case. Columbia police Detective Latisha Stroer purchased the knife similar to a knife Rios reportedly had during a shift meeting in late 2003 or early 2004, according to the motion.

Special Prosecutor Morley Swingle argues in a written response that the defense motions were already overruled on April 27, 2005, before the previous trial.

Citing the effort to suppress statements by Sheridan, Swingle said: "Some of the statements mentioned in this motion were the reason the case was reversed. I still believe at least parts of these statements are admissible, but I am not sure I am even going to try to offer any of them the second time around."